July 25, 2016

S Balachander: Carnatic Veena [HMV HTC 8176] recorded in 1970 and released on cassette in India in 1991

Sundaram Balachander was born January 18, 1927 in Mylapore and died on April 13, 1990.He was both a prolific recording artist as well as having a career as a film actor.The internet is not exactly rife with a lot of details of his musical career, given what a popular performer he was. It appears that he was self-taught on the veena and could also play sitar and tabla well enough to perform on All India Radio. I can't think of any other major Indian musician who was completely self taught and did not come out of a guru-shishya tradition.This recording was made in 1970 and eventually released on cassette in 1991. It features compositions by Thyagaraja.For a recording from 1970 originating from India, this has a remarkably smooth and warm tone. There is an occasional saying among hard-core audiophiles that no audiophile recording has ever been made in India. That's bit harsh, but it reveals a difference of opinion as to what good sound is, between so-called Western "audiophiles" and the musicians, engineers and listening public in India. One thing I have noticed is that Carnatic recordings are often appreciably of lower sound quality when compared to Hindustani albums. That might have something to do with where in the country the better recording studios have historically been located. Either way, this was recorded with care -- 45 years later, we are still enjoying the efforts of these musicians and engineers!Side A:Bantu Reethi (Raga Hamsanadham in Adi Taal)Nannu Vidachi (Raga Reetigowla in Chapu Taal)Melukovayya (Raga Bowli in Jampai Taal)Side B:Ninnuvina Sukhamu (Raga Thodi in Rupak Taal)Mridangam: Palghat RaghuKanjeera: C.K. ShyamsunderTambura: R KrishnanHere is a video of S Balachander performing (unknown date)

A brief note to my readers: I am slowly going back and moving expired Zippyshare links to adrive (where they will not expire).

I will eventually get around to migrating all of them, and making small adjustments (such as combining FLAC files into one folder which had to be spilt up in the past because of Zippyshare's limit of 200MB file size limitation).

If there is something you absolutely cannot live without and need it right away, then please let me know. I will try my best to do it soon but cannot make any guarantees.

PLEASE NOTE:

The musical works on this page -- all commercially unavailable to the best of our knowledge -- are meant to promote artists and labels. If you like this music -- please go try and buy the original! Labels and artists need and deserve our support! This blog is produced because of a passion for indian classical music and a genuine desire to increase the audience for this beautiful art form.There is no commercial intent of this blog whatsoever.If you are (or represent) either the original rights holder or one of the performers in these recordings and wish us to delete the download links, please contact us directly through the comments section and the download links will be removed immediately.